Archive for May, 2011
Jesus Christ is the Greatest Hippie (Rock Star) of Them All (Video)
Quick response to this story, Jesus is actually our greatest “rock star”/”hippie”/countercultural figure of them all (according to this musical), but there is a lot of debate here which I welcome based on the post below. Catholic Church, in my humble opinion, you f-ed up, but I ain’t the Pope.
BTW, if you could bring Carl Anderson back from the dead to play Judas, I would go every week to church again. This man is awesome:
Psychedelic Adventures at the Edge of the Abyss: The Ideas of Terence and Dennis McKenna
Many disinfo readers have been fascinated, at one time or another, with the psychedelic adventures of the Brothers McKenna (Terence and Dennis). We thought that you’d like to know about this course from Evolver – it should be a fantastic experience if you’re open to some mind expansion…
This Friday, May 20th is the last day to register at the $90 Early Bird rate for ”The Psychedelic Adventures at the Edge of the Abyss: The Ideas of Terence and Dennis McKenna.” Hosted by Dennis McKenna, the course features a special line up of close friends of Dennis and Terence who can speak with rare insight about the brothers’ legacy and their relevance for today: Daniel Pinchbeck, Dr. Luis Eduardo Luna, Ralph Abraham, Marc Pesce, Ralph Metzner, and Erik Davis.
The series has 4 sessions and starts on June 5. You will be in dialogue with these inspirational thinkers, asking them questions, challenging their assumptions.
Dennis and his…
Atheists Plan May 21 No Rapture Parties
Only in America folks. Not satisfied with having a good laugh at the believers who spent all their savings in advance of Judgment Day (May 21, 2011), atheists are planning their own celebrations. From BBC News:
US atheists are to hold parties in response to an evangelical broadcaster’s prediction that Saturday will be “judgement day”.
The Rapture After Party in North Carolina – “the best damned party in NC” – is among the planned events.
Harold Camping, 89, predicts that Jesus Christ will return to earth on Saturday and true believers will be swept up, or “raptured”, to heaven.
He has used broadcasts and billboards to publicise his ideas. He says biblical texts indicate that a giant earthquake on Saturday will mark the start of the world’s destruction, and that by 21 October all non-believers will be dead.
Mr Camping has predicted an apocalypse once before, in 1994, though followers now say that only referred to an…
College Graduates Earning Less
Congratulations to all the new college grads out there, but have you thought about how much your expensive new college degree is worth? For 2009-10 graduates who were able to land a job (about half), starting salaries fell 10% versus 2006-8, and it doesn’t look like 2011 will be any better. Catherine Rampell reports for the New York Times:
Employment rates for new college graduates have fallen sharply in the last two years, as have starting salaries for those who can find work. What’s more, only half of the jobs landed by these new graduates even require a college degree, reviving debates about whether higher education is “worth it” after all.
“I have friends with the same degree as me, from a worse school, but because of who they knew or when they happened to graduate, they’re in much better jobs,” said Kyle Bishop, 23, a 2009 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh…
Obama Presents Mideast Peace Vision To Arab World
Photo: Elizabeth Cromwell (CC)
Via Reuters:
President Barack Obama on Thursday backed a key Palestinian demand on the borders of a future state with Israel as part of his vision for a Middle East peace deal and sought to shape political change convulsing the region.
Obama’s proposal — a policy shift that effectively calls for a negotiated Israeli pullback to 1967 borders that existed before it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem — drew a swift rejection from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the eve of his Washington visit.
The president’s first public endorsement of the idea — in laying out his most detailed framework yet for an elusive peace deal — came in a much-anticipated “Arab spring” address aimed at recasting the U.S. response to upheaval sweeping the Arab world.
“At a time when the people of the Middle East and North Africa are casting off the burdens of the past, the…
Movie Director Shocks Stars By Admitting He’s A Nazi
Lars von Trier. Photo: Christian Geisnaes
Movie director Lars von Trier’s new movie is called Melancholia. At the press conference for the movie at the Cannes Film Festival, Von Trier shocked his stars, including Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg, by telling everyone that he’s a Nazi, that he understands Hitler and that his next movie could be called The Final Solution.
Some choice quotes:
“For a long time I thought I was a Jew and I was happy to be a Jew. Then I met Susanne Bier and I wasn’t so happy. But then I found out I was actually a Nazi. My family were German. And that also gave me some pleasure. What can I say? I understand Hitler…I sympathize with him a bit.”
“I don’t mean I’m in favor of World War II and I’m not against Jews, … In fact I’m very much in favor of them. All Jews. Well, Israel is a…
Man Flies Across Grand Canyon With Jetpack
A week ago, without media attention, a Swiss man named Yves Rossy completed an amazing eight-minute flight along the Grand Canyon. He flew at nearly 200 mph and used only his body movements to steer, notes Swissinfo:
Do Students Eat Like Prisoners?
Good Magazine looks at the similarity between prison meals and children’s school cafeteria food — both rich in starch-y/milk-y goodness, and costing around $2.65 per day to provide. It should also be pointed out that both children and prisoners are daily confined to small spaces and given little opportunity to burn off these massive calorie counts. I suppose school is intended to be practice for where the kids will eventually end up?
U.S. Warns Of Zombie Apocalypse
Hard to believe that this is a real communication from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, but it is! From the official CDC blog:
There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency.
A Brief History of Zombies
We’ve all seen at least one movie about flesh-eating zombies taking over (my personal favorite is Resident Evil), but where do zombies come from and why do they love eating brains so much? The word zombie comes from Haitian and New Orleans voodoo origins. Although its meaning has changed slightly over the years, it refers to a human corpse mysteriously reanimated to serve the undead. Through ancient voodoo…
Facebook And Google Team Up To Oppose Privacy Legislation
There may be bad blood after last week’s revelation that Facebook has been trying secretly to inject smear stories about Google into the media, but the two internet giants can join together on the most important issues, writes the Atlantic Wire:
Facebook, Google, Twitter, Skype and others cosigned a letter “strongly opposing” a bill introduced by California State Senator Ellen Corbett that would force sites to explain privacy settings in “plain language.”
Her recently introduced Social Networking Privacy Act (SB 242) would require a notice before users hand over their personal information to a site. In Sen. Corbett’s own words, “You shouldn’t have to sign in and give up your personal information before you get to the part where you say, ‘Please don’t share my personal information.” The bill would also grant parents the right to request photos or text be removed from any of their children’s social networking pages within 48…
Another Russian UFO Coverup?
It used to be that UFOs only visited the United States. Now it seems aliens prefer Russia (maybe they know that’s where the money is these days…). Michael Cohen gives his opinion on this Russian TV report for AllNewsWeb:
An important UFO event has taken place yet again in Russia, receiving massive media attention in that nation while being blacked out by the international UFO cover-up in the West…
Are We A Step Closer To Reading Minds?
Photo: MethoxyRoxy (CC)
Glasgow University has begun to ‘decode’ brainwaves. If successful, researchers believe the findings could lead to brain-computer interface. BBC News reports:
Scientists believe they are a step closer to being able to read people’s minds after decoding human brainwaves.
Glasgow University researchers asked volunteers to identify different emotions on images of human faces.
They then measured the volunteers’ resulting brainwaves using a technique called electroencephalography (EEG).
Once researchers compared the answers to the brainwaves recorded, they were able to decode the type of information the brainwaves held relating to vision.
The research was carried out by the university’s institute of neuroscience and psychology.
Six volunteers were presented with images of people’s faces, displaying different emotions such as happiness, fear and surprise.
[Continues at BBC News]
Florida Man Angers His Church By Asking Them to Pray for Soul of Osama Bin Laden (Video)
Brian Hamacher reports for NBC Miami:
The South Florida man whose prayer for Osama bin Laden caused a holy mess at mass this past Sunday is speaking out to defend the bizarre benediction.
Henry Borga paid $10 to put bin Laden’s name on the prayer list at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in West Palm Beach over the weekend, according to WPTV. The name appeared with four others under the mass intentions section in the church’s pamphlet, with a cross next to bin Laden’s name.
While putting the name on the list has caused quite a hubbub, Borga, who said he also prayed for the victims of 9/11, said it was about mercy. “He was a very bad man but he deserved to be punished in life, not by losing his life,” Borga said. “He needs forgiveness and compassion from God.”
China Farmers Facing ‘Exploding’ Watermelon Problem (Video)
Gallagher is not responsible. At least it’s not exploding people. Reports the AP via Yahoo News:
BEIJING — The overuse of a chemical that helps fruit grow faster is causing a rash of exploding watermelons in eastern China.
An investigative report by China Central Television airing Tuesday found farms in Jiangsu province were losing acres of fruit to the problem.
It said farmers sprayed too much growth promoter, hoping they could get fruit to market ahead of season and make more money. China is battling rampant misuse of pesticides, fertilizers and food additives, like dyes and sweeteners, meant to make food more attractive and boost sales.
Former Egyptian Special Forces Officer Named New Al Qaeda Leader
Flag of Al-Qaeda in Iraq
Hindustan Times reports:
A fierce succession battle appears to be gripping the senior ranks of al Qaeda in the wake of the death of leader Osama bin Laden, pitting regional affiliates against the central “hardcore” of the organisation. Reports from Pakistan have named an Egyptian former special forces officer, ,as the acting leader of al Qaeda.
Adel, who is in his late 40s, is a veteran militant who was close to bin Laden in the 1990s. He was detained in Iran after fleeing Afghanistan following the ouster of the Taliban in 2001. According to Noman Benotman, a former Libyan militant now living in London, al-Adel, also known as Muhamad Ibrahim Makkawi, was released from Iranian detention and returned to Pakistan last year.
The report in the News newspaper of Pakistan identified al-Adel as having been chosen as “interim leader” after a meeting at “an undisclosed location”. It said none of…
Translation Machine To Make Human-Dolphin Conversations Possible
What secrets of the sea have dolphins been waiting to tell us? We may soon find out (hopefully not just tuna jokes). New Scientist reports:
A diver carrying a computer that tries to recognize dolphin sounds and generate responses in real time will soon attempt to communicate with wild dolphins off the coast of Florida. If the bid is successful, it will be a big step towards two-way communication between humans and dolphins.
Since the 1960s, captive dolphins have been communicating via pictures and sounds. In the 1990s, Louis Herman of the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii, found that bottlenose dolphins can keep track of over 100 different words. They can also respond appropriately to commands in which the same words appear in a different order, understanding the difference between “bring the surfboard to the man” and “bring the man to the surfboard”, for example.
But communication in most of these…
Roswell ‘Was Soviet Plot to Create U.S. Panic’
This is even stranger to me than the famous “it’s aliens!” conspiracy theory we all know and love. Thomas Harding writes in the Telegraph:
Devotees of science fiction have been convinced for decades that an alien spacecraft crashed in the desert of New Mexico – and that the American government covered up the recovery of extraterrestrial bodies. The so-called Roswell Incident of 1947 spawned conspiracy theories by the score.
But now, sadly for UFO spotters, a new book offers an entirely man-made — and some would say even more bizarre — explanation, featuring two of the greatest villains of 20th century history: the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and the infamous Nazi “Angel of Death” Dr Joseph Mengele.
During a powerful storm in July, 1947, an object crashed near a rancher’s home in Roswell, New Mexico.
Roswell army air base initially said that a “flying disc” had come down, but hours later, as government scientists arrived…
Christian Broadcasting Head Says World Will End This Weekend Due To Gays
Harold Camping, the elderly president and voice of the juggernaut 150-station Family Radio network, lays out how and why Judgement Day will definitely be arriving on Saturday. Wondering who’s to blame — The Jews? The Muslims? Oprah? Know-it-all meddling scientists? Nope, they’re going with the gays.
Does ‘Public Opinion’ Really Exist?
Flip on cable news, and within twenty minutes the host will cite the latest survey as proof of which candidates should run for office and which foreign enemy we must now smite. Writing for New Left Media, John Brissenden tears apart the idea of opinion polls as a gauge for determining what anyone truly wants. The public may respond to opinion polls, but it’s the media, business, and political elite who compose the questions:
From its inception a century ago, and in its current construction, the terrain of ‘public opinion’ is far from being a neutral space where a representative democracy deliberates and resolves issues. At best, ‘public opinion’, as represented in opinion polls, is a deeply flawed mechanism for gauging the extent of wider support for a particular cause. At worst, it is hostile territory, constructed and owned by the ruling class.
In the 1920s, polling pioneers such as James Gallup…
